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Tag Archives: occupy-wall-street

Saturday 14th July saw cities across the country unite in opposition to National’s state owned asset sales which have been steam rolled through Parliament under “urgency”. Christchurch saw several hundred take to the streets to demand a halt to the National Party’s austerity measures. The government have been busy justifying cuts in public services, anti union law changes, pay freezes and beneficiary bashing under the guise of nationwide deficits and the global crises ever since it took office four years ago. The smoke and mirrors are faltering and National’s ratings are finally beginning to drop. If this weekend’s event has anything to prove it’s this: “The summer in Otautahi is going to be a hot and eventful one”.

Note worthy comments came from CAFCA – Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa. Spokesperson Muray Horton reminded us that we should be very wary of the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The “free trade” agreement is currently under negotiation between NZ and 8 other countries, including the U.S. which is being sold as a great oportunity but in reality will be a straight jacket on domestic law. What few labour laws remain will be wiped as the TPPA partners demand markets to be prized open and legislation to be put firmly in the hands of big business interests.

Much to the disdain of attending labour party supporters Muray remarked on Roger Douglass’ influence during the past 30 years. Deregulation, public wealth given to private speculators and an errosion of our communities all seem to have been forgotten by the current generation of Labourites. Almost all Western democracies are being attacked by cuts and austerity – regardless of what colour tie or badge the politician happens to be wearing – they are all doing the same to the people they supposedely represent. The CAFCA spokesperson had momentarially broke the social amnesia that has gripped the left in this country. Labour MP Megan Woods spoke immediately after Muray which only served to highlight the blustering and chest beating of Labour who all of a sudden seem to think asset sales and the plight of the workers and unemployed as something that is bad. Fancy that!

Hats off to event organiser Sharna Butcher – Really Great Job!!!

TC3 Residents have organised and are taking their fight to the streets:
O.S.N have just received this;

BIG NEWS – Fix our Homes along with Wecan will be holding a rally “EQC/insurance – the man made disaster” on 5 August . It will be held in town (location being confirmed) accumulating in a unique petition being driven to Wellington. More details to follow. If you are serious about your involvement and are committed to this cause please commit to meeting this Saturday at 3pm to discuss the logistics (location also to be confirmed). This situation will not be rectified without people power – this is our time to say enough is enough. But we need your involvement. We cannot win this battle on our own. Details will be updated on our facebook page TC3 residents.

Our friends at recomposition have just re-publishsed a great article on the phenoena sweeping Canada and the States – The Flying Squad

Recently much interest and discussion has been generated by the emergence of union flying squads in Ontario. Flying squads — rapid response networks of workers that can be mobilized for strike support, demonstrations, direct action and working class defense of immigrants, poor people, and unemployed workers — present a potentially significant development in revitalizing organized labor activism and rank-and-file militancy.

Here are organizations with rank-and-file participation working to build solidarity across unions and locals and alongside community groups, engaging in direct action while striving to democratize their own unions. No wonder then that the re-appearance of flying squads in Ontario, in a context of halting resistance to a vicious neoliberal attack, notably among some sectors of the labor movement, has been cause for much excitement.

Anyone living in Christchurch couldn’t have missed the build up to the ‘Save the Cathedral’ rally that took place on Saturday 26th May. It had been advertised on the air waves, in the local papers, flyers dropped in our letter box’s and posted on the roadside, the resources behind this project were massive. We were led to believe it would be the mother of all demonstrations since September 4th 2010, that the Minister for the Earthquake Recovery and leaders of the Anglican Church would not be able to ignore the people this time.

An estimated 2000 attended – Gerry Brownlee’s response? Within a matter of hours he simply dismissed any argument the organisers may have had and sided with the Church to demolish the Cathedral. 3 News article here: Cathedral-protests-unrealistic

At the same time as the Cathedral Rally Occupy Christchurch, Social Housing activists and numerous community organisers came together outside of Gerry Brownlee’s National Party Office to remind him that not everyone was wrapped up in the Cathedral frenzy. Around 70 people planted their placards and banners into the front lawn of the property. With messages such as “Freeze the rent”, “Rent is too damn high” and “Homes now business later” people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds spoke of their disbelief in the Cathedral Rally and the official response to the Earthquakes.

“We can not ignore the fact that 1000’s of people are prepared to take to the streets demanding a greater involvement in the rebuild and planning of private buildings when at the same time we have thousands of people living in red zoned houses, families renting space in garages and individuals calling the car their home? Has it become so hopeless than we are left to vent our frustrations at the Church?” Anonymous protestor

The protest organisers suggested all participants have a korero to air people’s ideas and see what we hoped to achieve. Initially talk took the direction of big picture issues such as how the city was being redesigned and organised but we were reminded that the big scale issues quickly leave us as individuals feeling overwhelmed and powerless. Supporters of Otautahi Solidarity Network put forward the idea that we needed to focus on the issues in our neighbourhoods. If we focused our energies on bad landlords and greedy bosses a group of 70 people armed with banners, flags and passion could really start to make a difference. The idea was received warmly, contact details were shared and links between the various groups were established.

O.S.N has the potential of being a vehicle of change in our broken city – starting off with small-scale victories it may not be long before we start seeing some real change and force CERA and Brownlee to change their course of direction.

In recent days Mike Peters, organiser for Addington Action made a call on social media “We need a real fight over housing in Christchurch.” Mike has achieved incredible feats restoring houses that otherwise would still be ice boxes and potential death traps. When people on the ground getting their hands dirty start making calls like this you now things are getting serious.

Now is the time to start putting the word out – if you or someone you know is facing horrendous rent hikes, being forced out of their home, had their hours cut or being made redundant get in touch. O.S.N doesn’t pretend to have a magic wand but what we do have is experience, ideas and a will to help others help themselves. O.S.N can be contacted here:

email: otautahisolidaritynetwork@gmail.com

facebook: otautahi soldiarity network

twitter: otautahi sol net

We will get back in touch and ask for more information, the O.S.N team will then discuss the issues raised among ourselves and get back in touch once we have an idea of what could be done.

O.S.N is always looking for individuals and groups that want to get involved. If you would like to know more flick us a message.

Coming up:

A Housing Summit follow-up meeting will be held on Friday June 1st at the Knox Church Hall.

“The purpose of the meeting will be to mark progress from the May 9 Housing Summit in the provision of rental accommodation in Christchurch”, says summit organiser, Cr. Glenn Livingstone. “June the 1st is the first day of Winter. It will be critical that we ask ourselves, ‘what are we doing about providing further rental accommodation in Christchurch?’. We are all stakeholders in this and by joining up our ideas and actions, we can make progress”.

Cr. Livingstone says that the main housing providers such as Housing New Zealand and the City Council will be asked to give an update on what they have done since the May 9 meeting to provide further accommodation. A steering group that has met since then will put several proposed action points to the meeting, asking for a mandate to act on them.

This is a public meeting, beginning at 10 am at the Knox Church Hall, corner of Bealey Avenue and Victoria Streets, Christchurch.